Bye Bye, Labour, Labour Bye Bye

A sense of despair is descending on the party over its Glasgow East poll humiliation and Gordon Brown’s leadership

Margaret Curran dreamed of a regal entrance, with flags, balloons and a jubilant crowd. After a fractious campaign against a rival party for which she barely concealed her contempt, the declared intention of the Labour candidate in last week's Glasgow East by-election was to "wipe the smile from Alex Salmond's face".

Instead, as she arrived for the count at the Tollcross Leisure Centre shortly after 12.30am on Friday, there was a funereal hush. Gathered round her like mourners, a handful of MPs and MSPs quietly patted her on the back and consoled her in defeat.

As more Labour MSPs thronged around her in a protective phalanx, Curran was close to tears. Her husband Rab Murray and two sons, David, 19, and Chris, 21, stood behind her red-eyed as John Mason, the SNP hopeful she had dismissed as a hard-line nationalist not up to the job, entered amid the deafening cheer